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American Morning
'Gimme a Minute'
Aired June 13, 2003 - 08:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for our Friday feature. It's called "Gimme me a Minute." The need to know meets the need for speed. Our A team is back again. This week's big stories. From Washington, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile.
Good morning, Donna.
DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning.
HEMMER: Jonah Goldberg, editor of National Review Online.
Jonah, good to see you again.
JONAH GOLDBERG, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Good to see you.
HEMMER: And from Chicago, Andy Borowitz. His new book is, "Who moved My Soap: The CEO's Guide to Surviving in Prison." He's not shy.
Good morning, Andy. Welcome.
ANDY BOROWITZ, "THE NEW YORKER": Good morning.
HEMMER: Let's kick it off for Donna. In the search for WMD in Iraq, the Democrats want hearings, they want them public, they want them now. The Republicans are saying, hold off for a little bit. For the left, Donna, is it time to pipe down and give this some time?
BRAZILE: Absolutely not. We know Saddam had them. We know he used them in the past. It is up to the Bush administration to go out and find that smoking gun before the Democrats find them.
HEMMER: And Jonah, what about it, fears, shades of Tonkin?
GOLDBERG: I don't think any of that's going to come to be. But, you know, look, the American people do have a right to know. They don't necessarily have a right to know right now. And I think the Republicans need to play this pretty fairly and say that, look, we're going to look into this, but let's do this in a mature way, not with nine Democratic candidates screaming in the background.
HEMMER: Question of now or later. What do you think, Andy? Is Saddam sitting on them, or where are they?
GOLDBERG: I think the government took another hit to their credibility this week, because they revealed they got a lot of their weapons information from "The New York Times." HEMMER: It's still fit to print, all of it. Let's talk about nine days ago in the Middle East. We were sitting here watching a historic moment in Aqaba. Nine days later more than 50 dead on both sides. And again, the question comes to the surface whether or not NATO now should police the peace there.
Jonah, is it time for that or not?
GOLDBERG: Well, my instinct is to say that is just an absolutely stony, nutty idea. But we have to be a little humble in that there really are no good options these days. But I'm going to stick with my instincts and say it's a really dumb idea. No one in America wants American troops to be bombed by Hamas every day. And the Europeans can't be trusted. It's just a terrible idea for too many reasons.
HEMMER: Donna, dumb or not?
BRAZILE: Well, first of all, I think unless the Israelis and Palestinians can sit down and break bread, I don't believe anybody else can come in and offer another loaf. So I think it's up to the Israelis and Palestinians to police themselves before we bring another side in.
HEMMER: And the question is NATO. Time to go to Brussels or not, Andy?
BOROWITZ: Well, it's interesting. The French have already agreed to offer criticism for anything we do. So I think that's...
HEMMER: Does that come with freedom fries, or does that come with mayonnaise or what is that?
BOROWITZ: Absolutely.
HEMMER: Harry apparently in some polls is outselling Hillary. Nevertheless, 200,000 books sold in the first 24 hours. Trent Lott now says, Donna, that he has some secrets and he's ready to spill them. Are you going to get in line and buy this copy or not?
BRAZILE: No, I don't think so. I don't believe any Democrat would be sweating bullets over anything Trent Lott has to say.
HEMMER: No?
BRAZILE: The only people who will be alive to read that book perhaps are Republicans.
HEMMER: Jonah, would you read it?
GOLDBERG: Well, the only secret I can think he might have in there is how he can use his hair as a protective shielding for the space shuttle.
Other than that, look, senators are boring. Trent Lott is pretty boring. If he's going to stay a senator, he's not going to say anything particularly exciting. I don't understand what the hoopla is.
HEMMER: Andy, do you think he's going to outsell your book?
BOROWITZ: Well, I hope not. But I think Trent Lott should write a book, because I think his problem in the past has been he's been afraid to speak his mind.
HEMMER: He's not shy.
Under the radar. What did we miss this past week, Jonah?
GOLDBERG: Well, the exciting news is in the wake of the Jayson Blair stuff, "The New York Times" is going to revisit its original sin, which was to publish their correspondence of Walter Duranty (ph), their Moscow bureau chief, during the Cold War, who basically said that Stalin didn't do anything wrong and didn't kill any people.
HEMMER: Interesting revision.
Donna, how about you?
BRAZILE: Well, yesterday I was struck by the sight of seeing so many Democrats gloat over a former POW, the first African-American woman. The problem is that I didn't see any Republicans in the room giving her any medals. So I was struck by that yesterday.
HEMMER: Andy, yourself?
BOROWITZ: Scientists are puzzled by the age gap between Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. It mysteriously grew another five years this week, no one knows why.
HEMMER: I think they're vacationing in Ketchum, Idaho this weekend, or not?
BOROWITZ: I guess so.
HEMMER: Yes. Hey, listen, thanks for coming in, guys. Have a great weekend. Who moved my soap is the book, by the way. Jonah and Donna, I was reading this last evening. It's only 84 pages long, so it's more like a pamphlet than a book. But nonetheless, who moved my soap is out by Andy Borowitz. Loved the cover, by the way. Over one trillion copies sold. Sales figures subject to an ongoing investigation.
BOROWITZ: That's right.
HEMMER: Have a good weekend, Andy, Donna, Jonah, thanks. We'll see you next week.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 13, 2003 - 08:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for our Friday feature. It's called "Gimme me a Minute." The need to know meets the need for speed. Our A team is back again. This week's big stories. From Washington, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile.
Good morning, Donna.
DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning.
HEMMER: Jonah Goldberg, editor of National Review Online.
Jonah, good to see you again.
JONAH GOLDBERG, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Good to see you.
HEMMER: And from Chicago, Andy Borowitz. His new book is, "Who moved My Soap: The CEO's Guide to Surviving in Prison." He's not shy.
Good morning, Andy. Welcome.
ANDY BOROWITZ, "THE NEW YORKER": Good morning.
HEMMER: Let's kick it off for Donna. In the search for WMD in Iraq, the Democrats want hearings, they want them public, they want them now. The Republicans are saying, hold off for a little bit. For the left, Donna, is it time to pipe down and give this some time?
BRAZILE: Absolutely not. We know Saddam had them. We know he used them in the past. It is up to the Bush administration to go out and find that smoking gun before the Democrats find them.
HEMMER: And Jonah, what about it, fears, shades of Tonkin?
GOLDBERG: I don't think any of that's going to come to be. But, you know, look, the American people do have a right to know. They don't necessarily have a right to know right now. And I think the Republicans need to play this pretty fairly and say that, look, we're going to look into this, but let's do this in a mature way, not with nine Democratic candidates screaming in the background.
HEMMER: Question of now or later. What do you think, Andy? Is Saddam sitting on them, or where are they?
GOLDBERG: I think the government took another hit to their credibility this week, because they revealed they got a lot of their weapons information from "The New York Times." HEMMER: It's still fit to print, all of it. Let's talk about nine days ago in the Middle East. We were sitting here watching a historic moment in Aqaba. Nine days later more than 50 dead on both sides. And again, the question comes to the surface whether or not NATO now should police the peace there.
Jonah, is it time for that or not?
GOLDBERG: Well, my instinct is to say that is just an absolutely stony, nutty idea. But we have to be a little humble in that there really are no good options these days. But I'm going to stick with my instincts and say it's a really dumb idea. No one in America wants American troops to be bombed by Hamas every day. And the Europeans can't be trusted. It's just a terrible idea for too many reasons.
HEMMER: Donna, dumb or not?
BRAZILE: Well, first of all, I think unless the Israelis and Palestinians can sit down and break bread, I don't believe anybody else can come in and offer another loaf. So I think it's up to the Israelis and Palestinians to police themselves before we bring another side in.
HEMMER: And the question is NATO. Time to go to Brussels or not, Andy?
BOROWITZ: Well, it's interesting. The French have already agreed to offer criticism for anything we do. So I think that's...
HEMMER: Does that come with freedom fries, or does that come with mayonnaise or what is that?
BOROWITZ: Absolutely.
HEMMER: Harry apparently in some polls is outselling Hillary. Nevertheless, 200,000 books sold in the first 24 hours. Trent Lott now says, Donna, that he has some secrets and he's ready to spill them. Are you going to get in line and buy this copy or not?
BRAZILE: No, I don't think so. I don't believe any Democrat would be sweating bullets over anything Trent Lott has to say.
HEMMER: No?
BRAZILE: The only people who will be alive to read that book perhaps are Republicans.
HEMMER: Jonah, would you read it?
GOLDBERG: Well, the only secret I can think he might have in there is how he can use his hair as a protective shielding for the space shuttle.
Other than that, look, senators are boring. Trent Lott is pretty boring. If he's going to stay a senator, he's not going to say anything particularly exciting. I don't understand what the hoopla is.
HEMMER: Andy, do you think he's going to outsell your book?
BOROWITZ: Well, I hope not. But I think Trent Lott should write a book, because I think his problem in the past has been he's been afraid to speak his mind.
HEMMER: He's not shy.
Under the radar. What did we miss this past week, Jonah?
GOLDBERG: Well, the exciting news is in the wake of the Jayson Blair stuff, "The New York Times" is going to revisit its original sin, which was to publish their correspondence of Walter Duranty (ph), their Moscow bureau chief, during the Cold War, who basically said that Stalin didn't do anything wrong and didn't kill any people.
HEMMER: Interesting revision.
Donna, how about you?
BRAZILE: Well, yesterday I was struck by the sight of seeing so many Democrats gloat over a former POW, the first African-American woman. The problem is that I didn't see any Republicans in the room giving her any medals. So I was struck by that yesterday.
HEMMER: Andy, yourself?
BOROWITZ: Scientists are puzzled by the age gap between Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. It mysteriously grew another five years this week, no one knows why.
HEMMER: I think they're vacationing in Ketchum, Idaho this weekend, or not?
BOROWITZ: I guess so.
HEMMER: Yes. Hey, listen, thanks for coming in, guys. Have a great weekend. Who moved my soap is the book, by the way. Jonah and Donna, I was reading this last evening. It's only 84 pages long, so it's more like a pamphlet than a book. But nonetheless, who moved my soap is out by Andy Borowitz. Loved the cover, by the way. Over one trillion copies sold. Sales figures subject to an ongoing investigation.
BOROWITZ: That's right.
HEMMER: Have a good weekend, Andy, Donna, Jonah, thanks. We'll see you next week.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com